Safety bat for striking balls or the like

ABSTRACT

A safety bat for striking balls or the like comprises a tubular body and a safety means. The tubular body extends along a longitudinal axis and includes a plurality of layers made of fiber-reinforced resin sheets. The safety means is disposed on the tubular body to eliminate the danger of damage caused by projectiles from the bat that breaks or shatters during use and such a safety means does not alter the bat&#39;s strength or performance.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to bats for striking balls or the like andmore particularly to a bat with a safety means for linking brokenportions of the bat when it breaks during use which otherwise wouldbecome dangerous projectiles.

2. Description of the Related Art

It was known that the conventional ball bats are generally made of wood,metal, fiber-reinforced resin material, or a combination of them. Yetfor having good performance and durability, the bat constructed entirelywith fiber-reinforced resin materials predominated over the otherconventional ball bats. However such bats usually has a tubular bodyincluding a plurality of layers made of fiber-reinforced resin sheetsand shaped with a handle portion, a barrel portion, and a taperedtransition portion between the handle portion and the barrel portion.The result is that the tapered transition portion is prone to breakbecause the stress producing during use will be concentrated thereon. Inother words, when the bat is broken or shattered during use, the barrelportion constantly becomes a dangerous projectile to injure both playersand spectators.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to a fiber-reinforced resin bat whichincludes a safety means to eliminate the danger of damage caused byprojectiles from the bat that breaks or shatters during use and such asafety means does not alter the bat's strength or performance.

Thus, the present invention can be a bat which comprises a tubular bodyand a safety means. The tubular body extends along a longitudinal axisand includes a plurality of layers made of fiber-reinforced resinsheets. The tubular body can be separated into a front section, a rearsection, and a middle section connecting the front section and the rearsection. The safety means is disposed on the tubular body and preferablyon the middle section thereof in such a way that it can link brokenportions resulted from the bat that breaks or shatters during use.

A preferred embodiment according to the present invention can be a batwhich comprises a tubular body and a safety means disposed on thetubular body. The tubular body extends along a longitudinal axis andincludes a plurality of layers made of fiber-reinforced resin sheets, afront section, a rear section, and a middle section connecting the frontsection and the rear section. The safety means is disposed on the middlesection of the tubular body and between two adjacent layers of thetubular body.

A further preferred embodiment according to the present invention can bea bat which comprises a tubular body and a safety means disposed on thetubular body. The tubular body extends along a longitudinal axis andincludes a plurality of layers made of fiber-reinforced resin sheets, afront section, a rear section, and a middle section connecting the frontsection and the rear section. The safety means is disposed on the middlesection of the tubular body and attached to the inner wall of thetubular body.

Another preferred embodiment according to the present invention can be abat which comprises a tubular body and a safety means disposed on thetubular body. The tubular body extends along a longitudinal axis andincludes a plurality of layers made of fiber-reinforced resin sheets, afront section, a rear section, and a middle section connecting the frontsection and the rear section. The safety means is disposed on the middlesection of the tubular body and between two adjacent layers of thetubular body. The safety means comprises a first separating member, asecond separating member and a safety member. The first separatingmember is attached to one of the two adjacent layers of the tubularbody. The second separating member is attached to the other one of saidtwo adjacent layers of the tubular body. The safety member has a sideportion disposed between the two adjacent layers of the tubular body anda main portion placed between the first and second separating members.For having such arrangement, the safety member is firmly attached to thetubular body and the resin material of the layers of the tubular body isprevented from seeping into the safety member by the separating membersso that the safety member will not be hardened during curing process andcan retain fragments from the body that breaks or shatters during use.

Another preferred embodiment according to the present invention can be abat which comprises a tubular body and a safety means disposed on thetubular body. The tubular body extends along a longitudinal axis andincludes a plurality of layers made of fiber-reinforced resin sheets, afront section, a rear section, and a middle section connecting the frontsection and the rear section. The safety means is disposed on the middlesection of the tubular body and between two adjacent layers of saidtubular body. The safety means comprises a first separating member, asecond separating member and a safety member. The first separatingmember is attached to one of the two adjacent layers of the tubularbody. The second separating member is attached to the other one of saidtwo adjacent layers of the tubular body. The safety member includes abundle of filaments with a side portion disposed between the twoadjacent layers of the tubular body and a main portion placed betweenthe first and second separating members.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will become more fully understood from thefollowing detailed description with reference to the accompanyingdrawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a section view of a baseball bat according to a firstpreferred embodiment of the present invention taken along thelongitudinal axis of the baseball bat;

FIG. 2 is a section view of the bat body and the safety means of the batof FIG. 1 taken along the longitudinal axis of the bat body;

FIG. 3 is a portion of FIG. 2 drawn to an enlarged scale;

FIG. 4 is a perspective schematic view of the baseball bat of FIG. 1when it is broken into two portions during use;

FIG. 5 is a cross-section view of a baseball bat according to a secondpreferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 shows a portion of the bat taken along line 6-6 of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a section view of a baseball bat according to a thirdpreferred embodiment of the present invention taken along thelongitudinal axis of the baseball bat; and

FIG. 8 is a portion of FIG. 7 drawn to an enlarged scale.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

Referring firstly to FIGS. 1 to 4, reference numeral 10 generallydesignates a baseball bat according to a first preferred embodiment ofthe present invention. The bat 10 includes a tubular body 12, a barrelportion 14, a handle portion 16 and a tapered portion 18. The barrelportion 14 is generally made of wooden materials. The handle portion 16and tapered portion 18 are made of PU materials. The bat 10 furtherincludes a safety means 20.

The tubular body 12 extends along a longitudinal axis X-X′ and includesa plurality of layers 22 made of fiber-reinforced resin sheets. Here,the fiber-reinforced resin sheet means a sheet made of a material offiber reinforcement impregnated in a resin matrix. The resin matrix canbe a thermoplastic resin or a thermosetting resin. Generally, the fibersof the fiber reinforcement are long fibers selected from the groupconsisting of glass fiber, boron fiber, carbon fiber and aramid fiber.

The tubular body 12 includes a front section 26 corresponding to thebarrel portion 14, a rear section 28 corresponding to the handle portion16, and a middle section 30 corresponding to tapered portion 18. Thesections, as shown in FIG. 2, are separated by two break lines.

The safety means 20, in this embodiment, is disposed on an inner wall302 of the middle section 30 of the tubular body 12. In other words, thesafety means 20 is disposed on the outerface 222 of the innermost layerof the layers 22.

The safety means 20 comprises a separating member 32 and a safety member34. The work of the separating member 32 is to prevent the resinmaterial of the innermost layer 222 of the tubular body 12 from seepinginto the safety member 34 so that it will not be hardened during curingprocess and can retain fragments from the tubular body 12 that breaksduring use. The separating member 32 can be a film made ofhigh-temperature-resistant and anti-resin-seep into materials or releaseagents. In this embodiment, the separating member 32 comprises a filmmade of “ETFE”. The separating member 32 has a first surface 322 and asecond surface 324. The first surface 322 is attached to the inner wall302 of the middle section 30 of the tubular body 12. The safety member34 is a sheet made of fabric materials which has an upper side 342, alower side 344 and a body portion 346. The upper side 342 and lower side344 are directly attached to the inner wall 302 of the middle section 30of the tubular body 12. The body portion 346 is attached to the secondsurface 324 of the separating member 32 so that the resin material ofthe innermost layer 222 of the tubular body 12 is prevented from seepinginto the body portion 346 of the safety member 34. Of course, the safetymember 34 also can be a strip made of fabric materials or at least abundle of filaments.

For having such an arrangement mentioned above, as shown in FIG. 4, whenthe bat 10 is broken at the tapered portion 18 during use, the barrelportion 14 is linked to the handle portion 16 by the body portion 346 ofthe safety member 34 so that the barrel portion 14 will not be adangerous projectile to injure both players and spectators

Next, please referring to FIGS. 5 and 6, these drawings show a baseballbat 40 embodied according to a second preferred embodiment of thepresent invention. The bat 40 includes a tubular body 50 and a safetymeans 60. The tubular body 50 is the same as the tubular body 12 of thebat 10 but the safety means 60 is different from the safety means 22 ofthe bat 10.

The safety means 60, in this embodiment, includes three separatingmembers 62 and three safety members 64. The separating members 62, asshown in FIG. 5, are disposed on the inner wall 502 of the middlesection of the tubular body 50 in a way that each of the separatingmembers 62 remains an equal distance apart. In other words, theseparating members 62 are evenly spaced with each other. Each of thesafety members 64 is attached respectively to each of the separatingmembers 62.

Speaking detailedly, in this embodiment, the separating members 62 arethe same as the separating member 32 of the safety means 20 of the bat10. However, the safety member 64 is different from the safety member 34of the bat 10. The safety member 64 is a bundle of filaments which hasan extending direction being parallel with the longitudinal axis Y-Y′ ofthe tubular body 50. The safety member 64 has an upper side 642, a lowerside 644, and a body portion 646. The upper side 642 and the lower side644 are adhered directly to the inner wall 502 of the middle section ofthe tubular body 50. And the body portion 646 is attached to theseparating members 62.

Lastly, please referring to FIGS. 7 and 8, the drawings here show abaseball bat 70 according to a third preferred embodiment of the presentinvention. The bat 70 includes a tubular body 72, a top cap 74, a butt76 and a safety means 80. The inside of the tubular body 72 can befilled with PU materials or the like to absorb the vibration during use.

The tubular body 72 extends along a longitudinal axis Z-Z′ and includesa plurality of layers 82 made of fiber-reinforced resin sheets. Thetubular body 72 can be also divided into a front section 722, a rearsection 724 and a middle section 726. In this embodiment, the safetymeans 80 is disposed between two adjacent layers 82 of the middlesection 726 of the tubular body 72.

The safety means 80 comprises a first separating member 84, a secondseparating member 86, and a safety member 88.

The first separating member 84 has a first surface 842 attached to oneof the two adjacent layers 82. The second separating member 86 has afirst surface 862 attached to the other one of the two adjacent layers82. The safety member 88 has a front side 882, a rear side 884 and amain portion 886. The sides 882, 884 are disposed directly between thetwo adjacent layers 82 and the main portion 886 is placed between thesecond surface 844 of the first separating members 84 and the secondsurface 864 of the separating members 86.

What is claimed is:
 1. A safety bat for striking balls or the like,comprising: a tubular body extending along a longitudinal axis andincluding a plurality of layers made of fiber-reinforced resin sheets,and a safety means disposed on said tubular body for linking brokenportions of said bat together when it breaks during use.
 2. The bat ofclaim 1, wherein said tubular body includes a front section, a rearsection, and a middle section connecting said front section and saidrear section; said safety means is disposed on said middle section. 3.The bat of claim 1, wherein said safety means is disposed between twoadjacent layers of said tubular body.
 4. The bat of claim 3, whereinsaid safety means comprises a first separating member attached to one ofsaid two adjacent layers, a second separating member attached to theother one of said two adjacent layers, and a safety member having a sideportion and a main portion, said side portion disposed between said twoadjacent layers, said main portion placed between said first and secondseparating members, whereby the resin material of said layers of saidtubular body is prevented from seeping into said safety member by saidseparating members so that said safety member will not be hardenedduring curing process and can retain fragments from said body thatbreaks during use.
 5. The bat of claim 4, wherein each of saidseparating members comprises a film made of high-temperature-resistantand anti-resin-seep into materials.
 6. The bat of claim 4, wherein saidsafety member includes a sheet made of fabric materials.
 7. The bat ofclaim 4, wherein said safety member includes a strip made of fabricmaterials.
 8. The bat of claim 4, wherein said safety member includes abundle of filaments.
 9. The bat of claim 4, wherein said safety memberincludes a plurality of bundles of filaments.
 10. The bat of claim 9,wherein said bundles of filaments are evenly spaced with each other. 11.The bat of claim 9, wherein said bundle of filaments extends parallelwith the longitudinal axis of said tubular body.
 12. The bat of claim 1,wherein said safety means is disposed on the inner wall of said tubularbody.
 13. The bat of claim 12, wherein said safety means comprises aseparating member attached to the inner wall of said tubular body, asafety member having a side portion and a main portion, said sideportion disposed directly on the inner wall of said tubular body , saidmain portion disposed on said separating member, whereby the resinmaterial of the layers of said tubular body is prevented from seepinginto said safety member by said separating member so that said safetymember will not be hardened during curing process and can link fragmentsfrom said body that breaks during use.
 14. The bat of claim 13, whereinsaid separating member comprises a film made ofhigh-temperature-resistant and anti-resin-seep into materials.
 15. Thebat of claim 13, wherein said safety member includes a sheet made offabric materials.
 16. The bat of claim 13, wherein said safety memberincludes a strip made of fabric materials.
 17. The bat of claim 13,wherein said safety member includes a bundle of filaments.
 18. The batof claim 13, wherein said safety member includes a plurality of bundlesof filaments.
 19. The bat of claim 18, wherein each of said bundles offilaments is evenly spaced with each other.
 20. The bat of claim 18,wherein said bundle of filaments extends parallel with the longitudinalaxis of said tubular body.